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In our last post, we provided the first in a three part response to the question, "Why Should I Hire a Lawyer to Help Incorporate My Business?" The first part of our answer was to first consider whether every business ought to "incorporate," and what are the options available for small business owners to consider.

This post provides part two of our answer - once a business owner makes the decision to form a limited liability entity, which form of entity should she choose? For the majority of business owners, this comes down to a choice between a corporation, often an "S-corporation", and a limited liability company. What's the difference?
First, note that State law is essential to understanding how corporations and LLCs are formed, operated, dissolved, etc. Each State is different, and some States are considered to have business statutes and supporting court opinions that are more favorable to business owners than other States. Delaware is the …

Having just finished a three-part answer to the last question in the "Ask a Lawyer" series, about why to consider hiring a lawyer to help with your will and estate plan, the next question in line also requires a multi-part answer. The question is "why should I hire a lawyer to help incorporate my business?" To help provide a thorough answer, we will break the question down as follows:How do I know what type of entity is appropriate for me and my business? Should every business incorporate?What's the difference between a corporation and a limited liability company? Which should I choose?Why should I hire a lawyer to help form my corporation/limited liability company? Why not do it myself?
I will address question 1. above in this post. To decide which type of entity is best for you, it's important to understand what are your options. I will list the most common choices here with a very brief description of each. Sole Proprietorship - essentially, you a…

This is the third and final part of the "Ask a Lawyer" series of posts responding to the initial question, "Why should I hire a lawyer to help with my will or trust." In the first post, we explained why it is important to have an "estate plan," and what that entails. In the second edition, we discussed why everyone should have a will. The third component of the initial question says, assuming that I've convinced you that you need to do some estate planning, why hire a lawyer to help? Why not use one of the many website offering will forms for cheap and simply do it yourself?

First, if you've made it this far and recognize that you need to do some estate planning, I commend you. You have already made a decision to take action to provide for your loved ones and to consider what will happen to your estate when you are gone. You have overcome the first, significant hurdle--you are doing something and not procrastinating!